What would be a good food schedule without pellets. If anyone read my post from a few days ago I found out there is a pesticide in most pellets, even if its not listed if the company did not put it in themselves they can legally not list it on the container.

So because of this i'v stopped feeding pellets to my bettas. Lately their dite has been frozen, thawed blood worms for break fast then either freeze dried krill or freeze dried blood worms for dinner. I was thinking about breeding some sea monkeys and seeing how they do having to chase their food around. But im not sure what a truely good diet for them would be since I know most people base it off the pellets.

Where I work we have spinach or lettuce that we will put a leaf in each tropical fish tank and fish seem to like it, would that also be good for the bettas? Obviously now a whole leaf each but alittle? Anyways im just looking for opinions on it.

And for those that are curious this is the pesticide I found to be in alot of fish foods including betta pellets, and remember just because it isnt listed on yours doesnt mean its not there, they legally dont have to list it if they didnt put it in themselves. And I know for sure its in the top fin brand.

EthoxyquinWikipedia Description for it:Ethoxyquin is a quinoline-based antioxidant used as a food preservative and a pesticide (under commercial names such as "Stop-Scald"). It is commonly used as a preservative in pet foods to prevent the rancidification of fats. There has been some speculation that ethoxyquin in pet foods might be responsible for multiple health problems

The thing I don't like about people freaking out and going ooooh pesticides is that anything can be a pesticide without being dangerous to the health of an animal. Just look at garlic, neem, sabadilla and rotenone. Even Wikipedia cannot confirm that it is actually responsible for health problems. Furthermore we do not know if it is even present in amounts large enough to be harmful in the foods or whether there is any way we can avoid it (what if it is used to feed live food).

If you want to switch your betta off pellets, you will need to feed live/frozen in HUGE variety; ideally you would make a gel food and add a pinch of veggie such as spinach or kale and a multivitamin.

Well maybe iam over reacting on the subject but withthe chance that it could shorten my bettas life or do some kinda of damage to him id rather not chance it and instead feed him foods I know dont have it like frozen foods and freeze dried. And I dont its used to feed blood worms ;] but id rather take my chances with that than actually feeding the pellets with the ingredients directly to my bettas.

Tonight while im at working im gonna buy some brine shrimp eggs. Some frozen brine shrimp and stock up on my frozen blood worms again. I will probably put a little piece of spinach in there and see how they much they like that.

the pesticide you mentioned is what i think was in my guinea pig's food and he developed a lot of health issues and died before his 1st bday after developing a huge tumor. (before I knew better about proper care of gpigs)

it doesn't only affect fish or guinea pigs, but birds and etc. even dogs and humans. and is known to cause serious health issues after given for an extended period.

As long as you feed in variety. If you get scared off pellets and only feed your betta bloodworms and brine shrimp instead you're shortening the fish's life for lack of nutrition which brings you back to square one.

Also just because the food is flaked, freeze-dried or frozen does not mean it cannot contain the preservative. I am looking at a pack of Spirulina flakes right now with ethoxyquin.

Hikari Bio-Pure is legit if you overlook the choline chloride which is toxic in amounts of upwards of 1% but that just goes to show how easy it is to find 'scary' ingredients. Choline chloride is also a necessity for brain function and provides the building blocks for the synthesis of acetylcholine, a vital neurotransmitter in both the peripheral and central nervous systems. And for the record pet food manufacturers rarely exceeded 1% of choline chloride even before its use in pet food became regulated.

to be honest, I personally am not TOO worried myself about whatever small amounts of toxins are present in my fishes food because I feed multiple foods (which means probably not as many of the same ones are going into his system) and I had given my pellets to my friend because my Betta preferred the freeze dried stuff and hers preferred pellets. and because he seems healthy at this point. Plus, I have other fish who eat the same foods he does I wouldn't want to feed them strictly Betta pellets :P. I think if you give them something with a toxin in it ALL the time, with no other variety for a reallly extended period of time THEN it can affect the animal. Small amounts of the food occasionally shouldn't hurt too much, like you mentioned, kelly, about what the FDA's regulations are.

I think if anyone is worried it is okay to find an alternative means of food it usually is good to err on the side of caution for most things.

Being that it is the last ingredient listed, I doubt it is enough to do much harm. (I'm sure everyone here knows they are listed in order of greatest amount to least) And as mentioned before, it can be hard without them to make sure your Betta is getting a rounded diet. Any kind of prepared food is going to have SOMETHING in it to keep it from going bad. I would hate to know what kinds of things WE eat haha.